I played around with this concept during my morning swim. Charge people a fee to Follow Back on Twitter. But even better, why not charge them to Follow You? How? Well, simply put, you block them if they don’t pay.

The procedure would be that you post the information on your profile that you charge a fee to be Followed, and to Follow Back. Then, in the normal course of events, you get Followers. Then you contact them and ask them politely to pay the fees within a certain period. Perhaps this process can be automated. If they don’t pay the fee/ransom by sending you an email on 21.co you block them.

Moreover, there is an opportunity to extend the financing possibilities to getting paid for any kind of interaction:

a small fee for a Like;

a higher fee for a Retweet (RT);

a still higher fee for a RT with a customized comment such as “Read this, it is profoundly intelligent.”

Is this absurd? Surely no one will agree to pay for this? I agree that is the case for Twitter accounts that have achieved little traction. But I disagree for more established Twitter accounts with good content and some influence. Ask yourself, would you pay for Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) to Follow you? How much? What about paying him to RT an important Tweet you wrote? How much? I would happily pay him $100 to RT a link to this article.

Step 1. Set up Account at 21

First set up your account at 21. This is the company that makes the little Bitcoin mining device and that has recently enabled an email service that pays you if you reply to your messages and perform tasks. It’s built on a Bitcoin platform but this is not highly visible to the user.

I’ve been beta testing the app for a month and have earned over $70 by completing tasks ranging from reviewing Uber’s latest app and the book The Sovereign Individual to filling out a survey about my television usage. For anyone who wants to start earning quickly in their spare time for simple tasks, 21 is a great solution.

Well that’s great for you Nick but 21 did not send me any tasks. So we can’t simply rely on tasks from 21 to make some Bitcoin as we are not all high-flyers like Nick Tomaino or Marc Andreessen for that matter. We need to find an angle.

21 are quite flexible about the process in these early days. I am paranoid about identity theft so I asked them to verify me with a false name and without a head-shot photo, and they kindly agreed to do so.

Once verified, you’re now in position to get paid for answering emails or, more relevant to our purpose of monetizing Twitter: to accept Bitcoin payment via the 21 system.

Step 2. Create a Fee Structure

You need a Fee plan. This is going to depend on the robustness of your Twitter account. How many Followers do you have? How many people do you Follow?

This is like a Golden Ratio. The higher the ratio the stronger your Twitter. Having 100,000 Followers and Following 100,000 gives a ratio of 1:1. Much better is 2,000 Followers while Following 400, a ratio of 5:1.

Step 3. Write Your Profile

You need to be explicit about your intentions to charge a fee in your Profile. Otherwise people might receive a nasty surprise when you contact them asking for a payment. In fact, they’re likely to block you.

Here’s my profile, for example:

Step 4. Monetize Your Followers

Wait for the Follows, then monetize them. Jack Phan Followed me last night.

He has 353k Followers. Great! He Follows 196k accounts. His Twitter feed must be busy. How does he read all those Tweets from 196k people? Does he read any of them, in fact?

This is my reply to anyone who Follows me who does not seem to have shared interests. There is no need to mention Bitcoin:

Thanks for your Follow. As I say on my profile, I charge $5 annually to be Followed. Please kindly pay here: 21.co/sgkinsmann Please pay an additional $20 annually (total $25) if you would like me to Follow Back.

Step 5. Tout for Business

The Lebanese economist Saifedean Ammous writes and Tweets about Bitcoin. I love his confrontational and bullish approach. He wrote something kind about my Bitcoin data analysis work.

I spotted my opportunity to earn some Bitcoin. I Tweeted him asking for a zero-fee Follow on the basis that he paid for a Follow Back. He has not Followed me. He has not paid. But, thankfully, nor has he blocked me.

Social Media Business Platform

If you still think no one will agree to pay to Follow another account or pay for a Follow Back, the same skeptical argument could be applied to 21’s paid email service – no one would actually pay to write a email to me. “I’m not Marc Andreesen!”

That is not true. In fact, I’ve already received an email on 21 – a job offer from Silicon Valley to be a Bitcoin data analyst. I sent a reply and earned my first $1 in Bitcoin (and have upped my fee to $20 since).

If you think that is fake then please contact me at 21.co/sgkinsmann so that we can agree escrow terms and a referee for a bet of 5 Bitcoin that it is true. I will provide irrefutable evidence to the referee of your choice. (Is there a business opportunity for providing a service to regulate bets made on Twitter, Facebook etc.?)

Also, note this. Anyone reading this article is into Bitcoin. Knowing about Bitcoin will become a valuable asset. Many of us have few Followers on Twitter now, but those numbers will grow in relation with the price of Bitcoin as more people get interested and the FOMO (fear of missing out) builds up.

Finally, read these Tweets by Spencer Bogart (great name!). He is the Needham analyst who just left Wall Street to head up Blockchain Capital. The demand for Bitcoin knowledge will grow as inexorably as the demand for Bitcoin itself. Many of the sarcastic teenagers participating in the Bitcoin Reddit will be Wall Street Bitcoin analysts in a few years.

Look at that conversation. Spencer Bogart is a serious player in the Bitcoin space. Why should he reply to questions on Twitter from a stranger for nothing? He should be paid for his time and expertise.

Can you sense a new industry in the making here? A monetized Social Media. It solves one of Twitter’s great problems – that most users feel they are shouting in a gale force wind. They feel unheard. With this structure you can pay for attention.

Pay to View Accounts That Blocked You

You can also make some bits by providing a service to people to view Twitter accounts that blocked them. It also involves receiving payment via @21. Please contact me confidentially at 21.co/sgkinsmannif you have the time and know-how of writing Twitter Bots to put into practice on a 50/50 equity basis.

Could Twitter become a P2P business platform with the help of cryptocurrency? Share your thoughts below!